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OBITUARY ADDRESSES 



OCCASION OF THE DEATH 



HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON, OF DELAWARE, 



Senate anfc ijousc of Uepreoentatiues of tljc Hniteo State©, 



DECEMBER 3, 1856. 







WASHINGTON: 
A. O. P. NICHOLSON, PUBLIC PRINTER. 

1857. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 1857. 

Resolved, That the Committee on Printing cause to be printed and bound, in pamphlet 
form, in such manner as may seem to them appropriate, for the use of the Senate, ten 
thousand copies of the addresses made by the members of the Senate and members of the 
House of Representatives, on the 3d of December, 1856, upon the occasion of the death 
of the Hon. John M. Claytox, late a Senator of the United States from the State of Del- 
aware. 

Attest : ASBURY DICKINS, Secretary. 



OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 



IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1356. 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, rose and addressed the Senate as follows: 

Mr. President: No more painful duty can devolve upon a member of 
this body than the annunciation of the death of a colleague ; and the 
duty becomes yet more painful when that colleague has sustained an 
elevated position in the country, and our personal relations to him 
have been those of kindness and friendship. 

It has become my mournful duty to announce to the Senate the 
death of my distinguished colleague and friend, the Hon. JonN M. 
Clayton. He died during the recess, on the 9th of November last, 
at his residence in Dover, in his sixty-first year; and, though his 
health had been uncertain and precarious for some years past, his 
death was unexpected, and has been the source of sincere and deep 
sorrow both to his friends and fellow-citizens. 

This, sir, is neither the time nor the place for an analysis of his 
great mental and moral endowments, or a critical examination of the 
political opinions he entertained or general measures he advocated so 
ably during his long period of public service. A brief sketch of his 
career, and the expression of my sincere appreciation of his many 
virtues, in asking for the tribute to his memory of those honors — vain 
though they be — which custom has rendered sacred, and to which his 
high endowments and eminent public services so well entitle it, seem 
more appropriate to the occasion. 

John Middleton Clayton was born in the county of Sussex and 
State of Delaware, on the 24th of July, A. D. 1796. His father, 
James Clayton, a man of unquestioned integrity and active business 



6 OBITUARY ADDRESSES Ott THE 

habits, was a member of one of the oldest families in the State, big 
ancestor having come to America with William Penn. His mother 
was a native of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. 

His father's means were those of competency, not of affluence, 
though his affairs became embarrassed about the time that his son's 
education was completed; but, with wise forecast, he had previously 
given that son more than fortune, in giving him the advantages of a 
liberal education; and well did my friend avail himself of those 
advantages. He entered Yale College in July, 1811, and, devoting 
himself most assiduously and laboriously to his studies, graduated in 
that venerable institution in September, 1815, with the highest honors 
of his class and the confidence and attachment of his instructors. 

Immediately after leaving college he commenced the study of the 
law under the late Chief Justice Thomas Clayton, one of the ablest 
lawyers of the State, and subsequently pursued it with him, and also 
for one or two years at the Litchfield Law School, and was admitted 
to the bar in his native county in the year 1818. From his high 
grade of intellect and extraordinary capacity for labor, he came to 
the bar with a knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence seldom 
acquired till after years of practice ; and his success at the bar of Kent 
county, where he located himself, was so rapid and brilliant that in a 
few years he stood in the foremost rank of the profession, with able 
and distinguished lawyers as his competitors. He devoted himself to 
his profession, and took no very active part in political struggles pre- 
vious to the year 1827, though he was elected a member of the legis- 
lature in the year 1824, and subsequently filled the office of secretary 
of state of the State of Delaware. 

In the division of political opinions which ultimately led, in the 
interval between the election of Mr. Adams and that of General Jack- 
son, to the organization of two great parties throughout the country, 
he adopted the principles and became identified with the fortunes of 
the whig party, which being in the ascendant in the State of Dela- 
ware, he was elected a senator of the United States in January, 1829, 
and took his seat in this body in December following. His public 
services in the Senate require no comment, for his history here is 
written in his country's annals. It is no slight evidence, however, of 
the highest order of merit, that a young man, coming into public life 
as the representative of one of the smallest States in the Union, at a 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 7 

time when 'such men as Calhoun, Clay, and Webster were in the 
zenith of their power and influence, should rapidly acquire a national 
reputation, and become one of the acknowledged leaders of the great 
party to which he was attached. Mr. Clayton was re-elected to the 
Senate on the expiration of his first term in 1835 ; but, becoming 
weary of the excitement of political life, he resigned his place in De- 
cember, 1836. The confidence of the Executive bestowed upon him 
in January, 1837, with the general approbation of the bar and the 
people of Delaware, the office of chief justice of the State, which he 
also resigned in August, 1839 ; having in that, as in all the public 
situations which he filled, demonstrated his high capacity for the per- 
formance of its duties. 

He remained in private life during the ensuing six years, but wag 
again elected to the Senate in March, 1845 ; and on the accession of 
General Taylor to the Presidency in 1849, the office of Secretary of 
State was tendered to him, as the consequence of his national reputa- 
tion, and accepted. The death of President Taylor in July, 1850, 
again placed him in private life. 

During the period which he held the position of Secretary of State 
he negotiated, in April, 1850, the treaty with Great Britain commonly 
called the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. That treaty was ratified by more 
than three-fourths of the Senate ; and I may be permitted to say that, 
had it been carried out according to the plain and obvious import of 
its language, would have effected all which this country should desire 
in relation to the territory of Central America and the safety and se- 
curity of an interoceanic communication ; and if difficulties have 
since arisen, either from the aggressions of the power with which it 
was contracted, or a failure on our part to insist in the first instance 
on its due execution, the fault, if any, rests not with him, as no action 
of that power contravening its proper construction occurred during 
the short time which he retained the office of Secretary of State after 
the ratification of the treaty. 

He remained in private life until 1853, when the confidence of his 
State again returned him to the Senate. 

It would be useless, if not idle, for me to dilate upon his command- 
ing powers in debate, which most of those around me have so often 
witnessed. 

He may have differed with many of us in opinion, but none can 



S OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 

deny the eminent courtesy and ability which he displayed in sustain- 
ing his views, or the broad nationality of his sentiments. Indeed, 
one of his most striking characteristics was the intense nationality of 
his feelings ; and numerous instances might be cited from his public 
life in which, where the honor or the interests of his country or the 
integrity of the Union was involved, he broke those fetters with which 
the spirit of party but too often trammels the minds of even the most 
distinguished public men. 

As a statesman he was the pride of his State, and a cherished leader 
of one of the great political parties of the country whilst its national 
organization was maintained. 

As a lawyer he was necessarily less known to those around me, as 
the sphere of his forensic action, with few exceptions, was within the 
limits of his own State. It has been my fortune, however, to have 
frequently witnessed and felt his powers, both as an associate and 
opponent ; and though I have heard very many of the most distin- 
guished lawyers of our country in cases calling for the highest exer- 
cise of their capacity, and may have thought a few possessed greater 
powers of discrimination and others a more playful fancy, in the com- 
bination of all his faculties I have yet to meet his superior, if, indeed, 
I have met his equal, as an advocate before a jury. I will not pause 
now to analyze the peculiar powers which rendered him so effective, 
formidable, and successful in his forensic pursuits. It is sufficient 
that he was so successful in a profession in which merit alone can 
command success. 

To his great mental qualities he added a host of virtues. Affec- 
tionate as a son, devoted as a husband, almost too indulgent as a 
father, he was a kind and generous friend. Of exceeding liberality, 
his purse was open to those he loved and esteemed with an almost 
careless confidence. Little conversant with, and somewhat heedless of 
the mere conventionalities of society, there was a charm in the cor- 
diality of his manner which endeared him to his friends and attracted 
and fascinated even his ordinary acquaintances. But, Mr. President, 
successful as was my friend in all his pursuits, there were shadows 
cast upon the pathway of his life, and he had more than an equal 
share of the 'sorrows and disappointments inevitable to the lot of man. 
He achieved fame and acquired fortune, and his checks in the pursuit 
of either were few and transient. This is the bright side of the pic- 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 9 

lure. The reverse presents the afflictions to which, in the dispensa- 
tion of an all-wise Providence, he was subjected in his domestic rela- 
tions. 

In September, 1822, he married the daughter of Dr. James Fisher, 
of Delaware, an accomplished lady, and the object of his first affec- 
tions. After little more than two years of domestic happiness, she 
died in February, 1825, leaving him two sons, and to him her loss 
was a life-long sorrow. He cherished her memory with an almost 
romantic devotion, and, though unusually demonstrative as to his 
ordinary emotions and feelings, with his deeper affections it was other- 
wise. His was a grief which spoke not, and even the observant eye of 
friendship could only see, from momentary glimpses, how immedicable 
was the wound which had been inflicted. Of the two children which 
she left him, the youngest, who was of great promise both intellectu- 
ally and morally, died in January, 1849, in his twenty-fourth year, 
and the other two years afterwards. On the death of his youngest 
and favorite child, there was a desolation of the heart which, though 
it vainly courted relief in the excitement of public life, could scarcely 
be realized by those who have not suffered under the pressure of a 
similar sorrow. Perhaps it is best pictured in the melancholy reflec- 
tions of Wallenstein : 

" I shall grieve down this blow ; of that I am conscious. 
What does not man grieve down ? 

From the highest, 
As from the vilest thing of every day 
He learns to wean himself ; for the strong hours 
Conquer him. Yet I feel what I have lost 
In him. The hloom is vanished from my life. 
For, ! he stood beside me like my youth, 
Transformed for me the real to a dream, 
Clothing the palpable and the familiar 
With golden exhalations of the dawn. 
Whatever fortunes wait my future toils, 
The beautiful is vanished, and returns not." 

Such, Mr. President, was my colleague's career, and such his sor- 
rows. He stood isolated in the world ; for, though there remained 
affectionate relatives and kind friends, they could not satisfy the long- 
ing of the heart for those nearer and dearer who had passed away. I 
cannot doubt that the corroding effect of this great grief, and the 
indisposition to physical exertion which it naturally produced, under- 



10 OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 

mined a very vigorous constitution, and foreshortened his life, at an 
age when ripened experience and undecayed mental powers would 
have rendered his services most valuable to his country. 

Among the graves of the last century, Mr. President, in an old 
churchyard at New Castle, there is an ej)itapli upon the tombstone 
of a Mr. Curtis, who died in 1753, after having filled many public 
offices in the then colony of the " Three Lower Counties upon Dela- 
ware," attributed, I believe correctly, to the pen of Benjamin Frank- 
lin. It might, with a change of name, be most appropriately inscribed 
upon the tomb of my lamented friend : 

" If to be prudent in council, 

Upright in judgment, 

Faithful in trust, 

Give value to the public man ; 

If to be sincere in friendship, 

Affectionate to relations, 

And kind to all around him, 

Make the private man amiable, 

Thy death, Clayton, 

As a general loss, 

Long shall be lamented." 

I will but further add, as the last and crowning* act of my colleague's 
life, that he died in the faith and with the hopes of a Christian. 
Mr. President, I offer the following resolutions : 

Resolved, unanimously, That the members of the Senate, from the sincere desire of show- 
ing every mark of respect due to the memory of the Hon. John M. Clayton, late a Senator 
from the State of Delaware, will go into mourning, by wearing crape on the left arm for 
thirty days. 

Resolved, unanimously, That, as an additional mark of respect for the memory of the Hon. 
John M. Clayton, the Senate do now adjourn. 

Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky — 

Mr. President : I rise for the purpose of seconding the motion that 
has been made for the adoption of the resolutions just offered. 

I would not willingly disturb, by a single word, the sad and solemn 
silence which has been impressed upon the Senate by the announce- 
ment that has just been made of the death of Mr. Clayton ; but I 
feel that it is due to this occasion, and to our long and cherished 
friendship, that I should offer to the memory of my departed friend 
the humble tribute of my respect and affection. 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 11 

He is so freshly remembered here that I can hardly realize to myself 
that we are to see him in this chamber no more ; that I am no more 
to see him take his seat by my side, where he was so long accustomed 
to sit ; no more to receive that cheerful, happy, cordial salutation with 
which he greeted us every morning as we met in this chamber. 

But, Mr. President, I must restrain these recollections and the feel- 
ings to which they give rise. 

I will not attempt any delineation of the character of Mr. Clayton, 
or any enumeration of his public services. These belong to history. 
But we who were his associates, who saw, and knew, and heard him, 
can bear witness that he was a great man and a great statesman, of 
unsullied and unquestioned patriotism and integrity, and that in the 
Senate and in the cabinet he rendered great services to his country. 
If History be just to him, she will gather up all these materials, and 
out of them she will mould for him such a crown as she awards to 
great and virtuous statesmen who served their country faithfully and 
well. 

The death of Mr. Clayton is indeed a public loss, a national mis- 
fortune ; and to his native State, which he so long and honorably 
represented in this body, a bereavement at which she may well mourn, 
as the mother mourneth over a favorite son. He loved and served her 
with all his might and all his heart, and acquired for his noble little 
Delaware fresh titles to respect and distinction in the Union. She 
can no longer command his services ; but the memory of him will 
remain to her as a rich treasure ; and his name, bright with recorded 
honors, will ascend to take its place with the names of her Bayards, 
her Eodneys, and her other illustrious dead, and with them, like so 
many stars, will shine upon her with all their benign influence. 

It must be pleasing to us all to learn from the honorable Senator 
from Delaware (Mr. Bayard) that Mr. Clayton died a Christian. So 
he should have died. Such a death gives to humanity its proper dig- 
nity. Full of this world's honor, he died full of the more precious 
hopes that lie beyond the grave. Of him who so dies we may well 
exclaim, "0 death J where is thy sting? O grave! where is tin- 
victory?" 



12 OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 



Mr. Cass, of Michigan — 

Mr. President ; Once more are our duties to the living suspended 
by the last sad tribute of regard to the memory of the dead. Another 
of our associates has passed from this scene of his labors to that dread 
responsibility which equally awaits the representative and the con- 
stituent, the ruler and the ruled. All human distinctions are levelled 
before the destroyer, and in the narrow house to which we are hasten- 
ing the mighty and the lowly lie side by side together. There our 
departed friend has preceded us. When we separated, but a few days 
since, he was a bright and shining light among his countrymen. 
Keturning to resume our functions, we find that light extinguished in 
the darkness of the tomb. Well may we exclaim, in the impressive 
language of the Psalmist, man's days are as a shadow that passeth 
away. 

His character and services have been portrayed with equal power 
and fidelity by the Senators who have preceded me, one of them his 
respected colleague, and the other his personal and political friend, 
and both of them entitled by long acquaintance to speak as they have 
spoken of him ; and their words of eloquence have found a responsive 
feeling in the hearts of their auditors. 

I cannot lay claim to the same relations, but I knew him during 
many years, and his high qualities have left their impress upon my 
mind, and I rise to add my feeble testimonial of regret that he has 
been taken from among us. 

The deceased Senator from Delaware was long identified with the 
political history of the country. Sent here by the confidence of his 
native State thirty years ago, he brought with him eminent qualifica- 
tions for the position, and which led to the high distinction he acquired. 
To a vigorous and powerful intellect, improved by early training, he 
added varied and extensive acquirements, the fruit of ripe study and 
of acute observation ; and he possessed a profound knowledge, rare 
indeed, of the principles of our Constitution and of those great ques- 
tions connected with our peculiar political institutions which so often 
present themselves for solution, and sometimes under circumstances 
of perilous agitation. He was a prompt and able debater, as we all 
know, and touched no subject upon which he did not leave marks of 
thorough investigation. In whatever situation he was placed he met 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 13 

fiie public expectation by the ability he displayed, and by his devotion 
to the honor and interest of his country. 

In looking back upon our communication with this lamented states- 
man, every member of the body will bear testimony to the kindness 
of his feelings, and to the comity and courtesy which marked his 
social intercourse. He was a happy example of that union of decision 
of opinion and firmness of purpose, in public life, with the amenity 
of disposition which constitutes one of the great charms of private 
life — a union the more commendable as it is rarely found in the ex- 
citing scenes of political controversy. His was a most genial nature, 
and we cannot recall him without recalling this trait of his character. 

It is a source of consolation to all his friends that when the last 
change came it found him prepared to meet it. He entered the dark 
valley of the shadow of death with a firm conviction of the truth of 
the mission of Jesus Christ, and with an unshaken reliance upon the 
mercy of the Saviour. He added another to the long list of eminent 
sien who have examined the evidences of revealed religion, and who 
have found it the will and the word of Grod ; and he died in the tri- 
umphant hope of a blessed immortality, which the Gospel holds out 
to erery true and humble believer. 

Mr. Seward., of 'New York — 

Mr. President: I consult rather my feelings than my judgment in 
rising to address the Senate on this melancholy and affecting occasion. 
While it seems to me that I have few nearer friends remaining to me 
than John M. Clayton was, I remember, nevertheless, that lie was 
by a long distance my senior in the Federal councils, and that, although 
we were many years members of one political party, yet we differed 
so often and so widely that we could scarcely be called fellow-actors 
seeking common political objects and maintaining common political 
principles. But it has been truly said of him that he was a man of 
most genial nature. The kindness which he showed to me so early, 
and continued to show to me so long, removed all the constraints 
which circumstances created, and I never failed to seek his counsel 
when it was needed, and his co-operation when I felt that I had a 
right to claim it. 

Mr. President, I think no one is surprised by this painful announce- 
ment. His health and strength were obviously so much impaired by 



14 OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 

frequent visitations of disease during the last regular session of Con- 
gress, that when I parted with him in September last, I was oppressed 
with the conviction that I 'should meet him no more on earth. The 
remembrances of kindness and affection he then expressed to me will 
remain with me until I shall meet him, as I trust, in a better and 
a happier world. 

Mr. President, I have fallen into these funereal ceremonies without 
any prepared, or even meditated, discourse. Perhaps if I shall let 
my heart pour forth its own feelings, I may render to the illustrious 
dead a tribute not less just than that which I could have prepared 
had I applied myself to the records of our country and brought into 
one group the achievements of his life. 

This I must say, that John M. Clayton seemed to me peculiarly 
fortunate in achieving just what he proposed to himself to achieve, 
and in attaining fully all that he desired. His respected and distin- 
guished . colleague has given testimony which was germane, though 
hardly so necessary as he thought, to the fact that Mr. Clayton was 
eminent in his profession as a lawyer and an advocate. He began 
life with the purpose of attaining that professional eminence. We 
who are here his survivors knew him in other spheres. His ambition 
led him at different periods into two different departments of public 
service — the one that of a Senator, the other that of a minister or 
diplomatist. 

Fame is attained in the Senate by pursuing either one of two quite 
divergent courses, namely, either by the practice of delivering the 
prepared, elaborate, and exhausting oration, which can be done only 
unfrequently, and always on transcendent occasions, or by skill, power, 
and dignity in the daily and desultory debates, on all questions of 
public interest, as they happen to arise. 

I happen to know, or to have good reason to think, that Mr. Clay- 
ton's ambition preferred this last-mentioned line of Senatorial effort. 
He kindly became my counsellor when I entered this chamber as a 
representative of my State, and his well-remembered advice was 
couched nearly in these words: "Do not seek great occasions on which 
to make great speeches — one in a session of Congress — but perform 
your duty to your constituents and your country by debating all im- 
portant subjects of administration as they occur." Senators all around 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 15 

me will remember how constantly and indefatigably lie himself pur- 
sued the line which he had thus marked out for me. 

Those who shall now read, as I am sure posterity will read, the 
recorded debates of the Senate for the period embraced Avithin the last 
twenty-five years, will find that, although surrounded by mighty men 
in argument and speech, John M. Clayton was one among the few 
effective statesmen who determined or influenced the administration 
of the government of this great country. 

His other department of public service was diplomacy. Never 
have I seen a man more admirably qualified by astuteness, compre- 
hensiveness, and vigor, for that arduous and responsible branch of 
public life. He excelled not merely by reason of these qualifications, 
but also, and eminently so, by reason of his frankness of character 
and conduct. He was frank, open, direct, and manly. He showed 
his purposes in outspoken and direct communications. Perhaps we 
owe to him as much as to any other of our many able diplomatists, 
the achievement of the United States in instructing the nations of 
Europe that diplomacy is best conducted when it leads through open, 
fair, and direct courses. 

Mr. Clayton was, as has been truly claimed for him, a patriot — a 
lover of a'i 1 the parts and of the whole of our common country. The 
peculiar location and character of the State which he represented — 
lying midway between the North and the South — probably had the 
effect to confirm his natural tendency of temper, and render him 
conservative, careful, cautious, and conciliatory. I respond to the 
claims made in his behalf by his colleague and by his venerable 
friend and compatriot, the senator from Kentucky, (Mr. Crittenden,) 
in this respect, when I say that I regarded his presence in these halls 
as a link of union between the generation which has passed away 
and that generation on which the responsibilities of national .conduct 
have devolved, and his influence necessary lor the happy solution of 
those great questions involving cherished interests of the North and 
of the South, which press upon us with so great urgency. Such was 
the character he maintained here as a senator and a legislator — an 
umpire between conflicting interests, a moderator between contending 
parties. How natural, then, that he should be eminently national, 
eminently comprehensive in his action as a minister and a diplo- 
matist ! 



16 OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 

A very distinguished French savan (Mons. Ampere) begins Ms 
journal as a traveller with an account of his visit at the World's 
Fair, held, I think, in 1352, in London ; and he pronounces that 
great exhibition of the industry of so many nations as the first 
universal fact in the history of the human race. He egregiously 
erred. That great event was neither the most important, nor was it 
the first, of the universal facts which have transpired in our own 
day. The first universal fact — a fact indicating an ultimate union of 
the nations — was the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, that treaty which 
provided for the opening of passages of communication and connexion 
across the Central American isthmus to the growing civilization of 
the western and modern, and the declining civilization of the eastern 
and ancient world. It was the felicitous good fortune of John M. 
Clayton, not more than his genius and ability, that enabled him to 
link his own fame with ihat great and stupendous transaction, and 
so to win for himself the eternal gratitude of future generations, not 
only in his own country, but throughout the great divisions of the 
earth. Whatever difficulties have hitherto attended the execution of 
that great treaty, Avhatever future difficulties may attend it, the 
treaty itself is the bow of promise of peace, harmony, and concord to 
all nations, as it is an imperishable monument to the fame of him 
whose worth we celebrate and whose loss we deplore. 

The resolutions were agreed to. and the Senate adjourned. 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 17 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1856. 



A message was received from the Senate, by Asbury Dickins, their 
Secretary, announcing to the House information of the death of the 
Hon. John M. Clayton, late senator from Delaware, and the proceed- 
ings of the Senate thereon. 

The resolutions of the Senate having been read — 

Mr. Cullen, of Delaware, rose and addressed the House as follows : 

I rise, Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of performing, to me, a most 
painful duty: it is to announce to this House, and to the nation, the 
death of one of the most distinguished citizens of the State of Dela- 
ware. 

I need not portray to this House the character of the deceased. It 
was known to us all and to the nation. His reputation is spread 
throughout the length and breadth of this land ; but I cannot let this 
occasion pass without making some remarks which may show to this 
House and the country the light in which I would invite them to 
regard the career of our deceased senator and statesman. 

He was a man of great research and great intellect, of profound 
learning and uncommon quickness. He has occupied a place in the 
history of this nation for a period of thirty years, as one of the most 
distinguished citizens of this country. He was born in the village of 
Dagsborough, in the county of Sussex, and State of Delaware, on the 
24th day of July, 1796. He entered Yale College, and graduated in 
1815, with the first honors of his class. Upon his return to the State 
of Delaware, he commenced the study of the law with his relative, 
the Hon. Thomas Clayton, a distinguished member of the bar of that 
State, and for many years a member of this House, and afterwards 
one of our senators ; he was a very distinguished jurist, and stood at 
the head of his profession. "With him he studied one year, and then 
removed to the Litchfield Law School, then under the charge of two 
distinguished professors, Judges Gold and Reevez. He there pursued 
2 



18 OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 

his studies, with great diligence and industry, for the period required 
by the rules of our courts, previous to his admission to the bar of the 
superior courts of Delaware; to which he was admitted in 1818, in the 
county of his birth. His splendid examination gave early promise of 
his future eminence and success. 

He soon became distinguished in that position. It has been my 
fortune to be engaged with him in the argument of many causes, both 
as his colleague and as his opponent ; and I must say to this House, 
and to the nation, that never have I witnessed the display of such 
quickness of apprehension, such memory, such a grasping intellect, 
such learning, such zeal and ingenuity, as were displayed by the 
deceased on every occasion in which he found it necessary to exert his 
great mind in the progress of a cause. As a lawyer, he was profound 
and industrious, of untiring patience. He viewed his cases in every 
point of light in which they could be seen, and could see every point 
in them at a glance. But he was not satisfied with a glance. He 
investigated every position, and was prepared for every question which 
could arise in the case. I have seen gentlemen whose legal minds, I 
thought, were equal to his ; but when he prepared himself, never has 
there been known in the State of Delaware a man who could be said 
to be his equal. It is confidently everywhere asserted that he never 
saw his equal, especially as an advocate before a jury. 

As an advocate, he excelled any member of the bar whose career 
has been witnessed by any person now living. I have known him to 
be successful in cases which any other lawyer would have despaired 
of; and so keen was his perception of the ludicrous, that if the case 
of his opponent presented any features of which advantage could be 
taken by turning them into ridicule, he was sure to succeed. I have 
known him to gain causes certainly against law, and the evidence, and 
the facts of the case, by his superior ingenuity, and his deep know- 
ledge of human nature. As a special pleader, he was not surpassed 
by any gentleman at that profession. His talents as a lawyer, even 
when he had been but a few years at the bar in the practice of his 
profession, soon became known throughout his native State ; and before 
he had been at the bar three years he was sought after and engaged 
in every important cause in the State. Every litigant was anxious 
to procure his services, thinking his aid sufficient to secure certain 
success. 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 19 

But he was not long to enjoy the quiet of his profession. He soon 
became the leader of the whig party in the State of Delaware. Though 
quite young, he was known to possess more extensive and command- 
ing influence than any other gentleman in that party, of which there 
were many of great talent, learning, and distinction. In the year 
1824 he was selected by Governor Polk as the secretary of state of the 
State of Delaware. That was the first instance in which an office of 
so much importance and responsibility was ever conferred upon a man 
so young and of so little experience. He performed the duties of that 
office, as well as of all others which he held, with skill, integrity, and 
great ability, and left it with great popularity. I should state that 
the first public employment in which he was engaged was that of a 
member of the house of representatives of the legislature of Delaware, 
and soon after that of auditor of accounts — an office which, I believe, 
is peculiar to the States of Delaware and New York. When he 
entered upon the duties of the office of auditor of accounts, everything 
was in confusion there, and though but a young man, he soon reduced 
the chaotic mass into a perfect system. He left upon the records of 
auditor the impress of his own great mind ; and the business of that 
station has ever since been conducted upon his own great model arid 
system, which it is believed can never be improved. 

He was next elected to the Senate of the United States in A. D. 
1829, when he was barely of the age which the Constitution requires 
for that station. He was re-elected in January, 1835. He resigned 
that office before the expiration of his term, and was appointed chief 
justice of the State of Delaware in 1837. That station, like all others 
which he filled, he adorned by his learning, by his great ability, and 
by his spotless integrity. No man, perhaps, ever left that office with 
so high a reputation as a judge, as did the Hon. John M. Clayton ; 
and I may be permitted to say upon this occasion, that in the many 
causes which he decided, it is not in the recollection of any member of 
the bar that there was ever a writ of error or an appeal taken from any 
decision which he made. He always gave such authorities and 
reasons for the decisions which he made, so full and satisfactory, that 
no counsel ever advised his client to undergo or risk the chance of a 
reversal of the judgment given by the court of which he was the chief 
justice. He was afterwards elected by the people as a member of the 
convention to amend the constitution of the State of Delaware. In 



20 OBITUARY ADDRESSES ON THE 

that convention lie was the leading member which gave the amend- 
ments of our constitution to the people of Delaware, thus leaving upon 
that constitution the marks and footprints of that high and mighty 
intellect which he was known to possess and command. The judiciary- 
system of Delaware, planned and produced by him, has ever since been 
looked upon and held as a masterpiece of intellect, foresight, and 
wisdom, which has never been surpassed. 

He resigned the office of chief justice in 1839, and was again elected 
in 1845 to the United States Senate for the full term of six years. He 
resigned his office as senator, and was appointed Secretary of State oi 
the United States in 1849. He was again elected senator in 1853. 

The deceased died at Dover, the place of his residence, November 9, 
1856. It has fallen, Mr. Speaker, to the lot of but few men to hold 
and enjoy that deep-rooted and hearty popularity which our deceased 
friend possessed from his first admission to the bar to the day of his 
death. He engaged, won, and held the affections of all with whom 
he was associated and connected. Perhaps there is no man, certainly 
none of his eminence and distinction, who had fewer enemies. It is a 
remarkable fact that he never bore malice towards any human being. 
In the many contests in which he was engaged, as must be expected, 
there was some ill-feeling and strife engendered. I have known those 
who have expressed ill-feelings towards him, and towards whom, per- 
haps, he entertained no very kind feelings ; but whenever he was 
approached with kindness, even by an open enemy, his better feelings 
instantly gained the ascendant, and in a moment he was fully recon- 
ciled. Every passionate feeling went from him, and he received those 
who had been his enemies with all the kindness of a friend, void of 
every bitter feeling. His reconciliation was perfect and sincere. He 
fully pardoned and forgave, and the past was wholly forgotten by him. 
He was one of the warmest and kindest-hearted men that ever lived. 
As a husband and father he never was surpassed. As a friend he was 
sincere, and was beloved by all with whom he was associated. I need 
not say to this House that he had the confidence of all with whom he 
was associated and had connexion, and never was that confidence 
betrayed or misplaced. 

The State of Delaware now mourns the death of her most distin- 
guished son, statesman, and patriot. We mourn his death at this 
time more particularly, because, from the principles which he held, 



DEATH OF HON. JOHN M. CLAYTON. 21 

his life would have been most useful. He was a conservative man. 
He loved his country, and the Constitution of the country. He loved 
the Union, and every part of it. There was nothing like disunion in 
him. He held to the Union to the last, and called upon his friends 
and relatives to stand by it. Though not connected with any of the 
parties which engaged in the late presidential contest, yet he did not 
fail to make it known to all with whom he was connected, that he 
stood by the principles which he had always advocated, and to call 
upon them to remember their country and the Union as above all 
price. 

I feel, sir, that this is a mournful occasion. A man of great dis- 
tinction, of known influence, and of the highest attainments in our 
country, has been swept from us suddenly and unexpectedly. The 
State of Delaware mourns the loss of her most distinguished son. 
His death is a loss to the nation. Ever since he has been in the 
Senate, even from his first session there, he has taken an active parti- 
cipation in all important debates which have occurred in that body. 
His speeches and State papers will make a work of four or five volumes. 
They will be consulted by future statesmen as models of oratory, as 
models of good sense, and as models of patriotism and of wisdom. 
His mind was powerful ; his memory most extraordinary and retentive ; 
his habits were exceedingly regular. It has often been asserted, and 
never, to my knowledge, contradicted, that, during the four years he 
was a student and member of Yale College, he never missed a single 
recitation ; never once absented himself from prayers, morning or 
evening; never, during the whole four years, was once absent from 
church ; and never, upon any occasion, violated a single rule or law 
of the college. His constitution enabled him to endure almost any 
amount of laborious investigation. I have known him to be engaged 
two, and even three, successive nights, without sleep, in the investiga- 
tion of a single case. But that constitution, strong and powerful as 
it was, had at last to yield to the fell destroyer. Disease enfeebled 
and broke him down, and we now mourn his loss. 

I rejoice to say that he died a Christian. From his youth he ever 
had the most profound respect and reverence for the Christian religion. 
He fully believed in the truth of Divine revelation before his death ; 
he made an open profession of the religion of the Saviour ; was formally 
admitted into the Presbvterian church at Dover, where he died ; and 



22 OBITUARY ADDRESSES. 

his whole deportment and conversation, from the time of his profes- 
sion up to the time of his death, showed the full sincerity of his pro- 
fession — that he was a sincere Christian. He greatly rejoiced in the 
evidence of his acceptance as an humble believer. "He died the death 
of the righteous, and his latter end was like his." He died in the 
full assurance of faith and of hope. 

I hold in my hands some resolutions which I propose to offer to the 
House for its adoption. 

The resolutions were read ; and are as follows : 

Resolved, That this House deeply laments the recent death of the Hon. John M. Clay- 
ton, a senator of the United States from the State of Delaware ; and that, as a testimonial 
of respect for his memory, the members of the House will wear crape on the left arm for 
thirty days. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate a copy of the foregoing resolution to the family 
of the deceased. 

Resolved, (as a further mark of respect,) That the House do now adjourn. 

The resolutions were agreed to; and thereupon the House adjourned. 




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